The "lightweight.finder" in the online database iFurn helps users to find the right lightweight product for their respective applications.

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Find the light stuff more easilyNew search engine "lightweight.finder" launched at the Ligna

Lightweight? That's often easier said than done. Which core material? Which surfaces? Orientation in the jungle of lightweight construction for furniture and indoor fittings is provided by the new "lightweight.finder". This innovative online search engine, which will be launched at the Ligna, is the result of cooperation between Herford-based iFurn GmbH and the lightweight construction professionals at Hochschule Ostwestfalen-Lippe (University of Applied Sciences) in Lemgo. The autonomous portal within the iFurn-Databroker not only takes users through the range of lightweight materials on offer with absolute precision; it also provides a permanent source of up-to-date information about research and development in the lightweight construction field.

Hochschule OWL (University of Applied Sciences) has been concerning itself intensively with research into lightweight products for the furniture industry since 2004. As the co-initiator of the association Interessengemeinschaft Leichtbau e.V. (igeL), it has as one of its initiative's declared goals the broad communication of the lightweight idea to the general public. This includes providing users with professional, well-founded information – and the online database iFurn is just the right tool for this job. iFurn managing director Winfried Dell: "The partnership with Hochschule OWL is now making it possible for us to present the leading topic of lightweight construction with a new standard of breadth and depth. Hochschule OWL provides the information, and we at iFurn supply the technical framework."

Professor Martin Stosch, head of the laboratory for furniture construction at Hochschule OWL (University of Applied Sciences), adds: "The production and economics faculty encompasses intercompany research into and development of lightweight structures. We are glad to have found iFurn as a partner that can make the results of our work available to users without any loss of time."

The "lightweight.finder" uses a variety of search approaches to help users find the right product for their application. The selection of core and surface layers, for example, leads directly to the various lightweight materials that are presented along with detailed data sheets about the product and the manufacturer. More than 250 products have already been catalogued. Professor Stosch: "With the 'lightweight.finder' we are making the potential of lightweight construction much easier to recognise and use."